The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters

Don't miss The Cloisters museum and gardens

High atop a hill in northern Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, overlooking the Hudson River, The Cloisters museum and gardens is the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. As the only museum of its kind in America, The Cloisters is a year-round destination for tourists and a local getaway for native New Yorkers. Museumgoers can stroll under vaulted archways, wander through flowering courtyards, and explore meticulously re-created gardens of the Middle Ages.

Within The Cloisters are four reconstructed medieval French cloisters—the Cuxa Cloister, the Trie Cloister, Bonnefont Cloister, and the Saint-Guilhem Cloister, all consisting of large, open courtyards surrounded by covered walkways—that give the museum its name. Two of the cloisters feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises, poetry, garden documents, and herbals; a third cloister is home to a flower garden planted with modern ornamental species.

Some 5,000 outstanding works of art, dating from about A.D. 800 with emphasis on the 12th through the 15th century, are presented in this unique building, which opened in 1938. Highlights include the celebrated Unicorn Tapestries, seven luxuriously woven works depicting the hunt for the elusive, magical unicorn; The Annunciation Triptych by the 15th-century Netherlandish master Robert Campin; magnificent sculpture; exquisite illuminated manuscripts; and rare examples of Gothic stained glass.

Several newly renovated galleries, along with many recent additions to the collection like the Bust of the Virgin, the only known terracotta sculpture from medieval Bohemia, testify to The Cloisters continued vitality. Visitors can enjoy highlights tours of the collection, garden tours, gallery talks and programs, gallery workshops for families, and much more.

Admission to The Metropolitan Museum of Art includes same-day admission to The Cloisters. Getting to The Cloisters: Take the subway or bus: see The Metropolitan Museum of Art main page for directions; or drive (free parking is available in Fort Tryon Park); Map & Directions by GoogleMaps.com.